ML092450624

EA-09-167, Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 2, Final Significance Determination for a White Finding and Notice of Violation, NRC Inspection Report No. 05000306-09-013

ML092450624
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	09/03/2009
From:	Satorius M Region 3 Administrator
To:	Schimmel M Northern States Power Co
References
EA-09-167, IR-09-013 EA-09-167
Download: ML092450624 (6)

See also: IR 05000306/2009013

Text

September 3, 2009

EA-09-167

Mr. Mark A. Schimmel

Acting Site Vice President

Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant

Northern States Power Company - Minnesota

1717 Wakonade Drive East

Welch, MN 55089

SUBJECT: FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A WHITE FINDING AND

NOTICE OF VIOLATION; NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000306/2009013;

PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNIT 2

Dear Mr. Schimmel:

The purpose of this letter is to provide you the final results of our significance determination of the

preliminary White finding identified in Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010.

The inspection finding was assessed using the Significance Determination Process and was

preliminarily characterized as White, a finding with low to moderate increased importance to

safety that may require additional U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspections. This

White finding is associated with the licensees failure to design the component cooling water

system such that it would be protected from the impact of a high energy line break, seismic, or

tornado events.

In a telephone conversation with Mr. Steven West of the NRC Region III office, on

August 10, 2009, Mr. Michael Wadley, former Site Vice President, indicated that Northern States

Power Company - Minnesota did not contest the characterization of the risk significance of this

finding and that Northern States Power Company - Minnesota declined the opportunity to discuss

this issue in a regulatory conference or to provide a written response.

After considering the information developed during the inspection, the NRC has concluded that

the inspection finding is appropriately characterized as White, a finding with low to moderate

increased importance to safety that may require additional NRC inspections as stated in

Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010.

The NRC has also determined that the finding is a violation of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B,

Criterion III, Design Control, as cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation (Notice). The

circumstances surrounding the violation were described in detail in the subject inspection report.

In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the Notice is considered escalated enforcement

action because it is associated with a White finding.

The NRC has concluded that the information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective

actions taken, and the date when full compliance was achieved is already adequately addressed

on the docket in the subject inspection report. Therefore, you are not required to respond to this

letter unless the description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your

position.

M. Schimmel -2-

As a result of our review of Prairie Island Unit 2s performance, including this White finding, we

have assessed you to be in the Regulatory Response column of the NRCs Action Matrix.

Therefore, we plan to conduct a supplemental inspection using Inspection Procedure 95001,

Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, when your staff has

notified us of your readiness for this inspection. This inspection procedure is conducted to

provide assurance that the root cause and contributing causes of risk significant performance

issues are understood, the extent of condition is identified, and the corrective actions are

sufficient to prevent recurrence.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its

enclosure, and your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically

for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s Agencywide

Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, your response should not

include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made

available to the public without redaction.

Sincerely,

/RA by Cynthia D. Pederson Acting for/

Mark A. Satorius

Regional Administrator

Docket No. 50-306

License No. DPR-60

Enclosure:

Notice of Violation

cc w/encl: D. Koehl, Chief Nuclear Officer

G. Salamon, Regulatory Affairs Manager

P. Glass, Assistant General Counsel

Nuclear Asset Manager

J. Stine, State Liaison Officer, Minnesota Department of Health

Tribal Council, Prairie Island Indian Community

Administrator, Goodhue County Courthouse

Commissioner, Minnesota Department

of Commerce

Manager, Environmental Protection Division

Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Dakota

County Law Enforcement Center

M. Schimmel -3-

As a result of our review of Prairie Island Unit 2s performance, including this White finding, we have

assessed you to be in the Regulatory Response column of the NRCs Action Matrix. Therefore, we plan to

conduct a supplemental inspection using Inspection Procedure 95001, Inspection for One or Two White

Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, when your staff has notified us of your readiness for this

inspection. This inspection procedure is conducted to provide assurance that the root cause and

contributing causes of risk significant performance issues are understood, the extent of condition is

identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to prevent recurrence.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and

your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in

the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s Agencywide Documents Access and Management

System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To

the extent possible, your response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards

information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction.

Sincerely,

/RA by Cynthia D. Pederson Acting for/

Mark A. Satorius

Regional Administrator

Docket No. 50-306

License No. DPR-60

Enclosure:

Notice of Violation

cc w/encl: D. Koehl, Chief Nuclear Officer

G. Salamon, Regulatory Affairs Manager

P. Glass, Assistant General Counsel

Nuclear Asset Manager

J. Stine, State Liaison Officer, Minnesota Department of Health

Tribal Council, Prairie Island Indian Community

Administrator, Goodhue County Courthouse

Commissioner, Minnesota Department

of Commerce

Manager, Environmental Protection Division

Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota

Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Dakota

County Law Enforcement Center

DISTRIBUTION:

See next page

FILE NAME: G:\EICS\ENFORCEMENT\Enforcement Cases 2009\EA-09-167 Prairie Island CCW\EA-09-

167 Prairie Island Draft Final Action.doc

Publicly Available ; Non-Sensitive

OFFICE RIII RIII RIII D:OE RIII RIII

NAME Lougheed Giessner West Bowman for Orth Pederson for

1

Carpenter Satorius

DATE 09/01/09 09/01/09 09/01/09 08/31/09 09/01/09 09/02/09

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

1. OE concurrence received via e-mail from G. Gulla on August 31, 2009.

Letter to Mark A. Schimmel from Mark A. Satorius dated September 3, 2009

SUBJECT: FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A WHITE FINDING AND

NOTICE OF VIOLATION; NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000306/2009013;

PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNIT 2

DISTRIBUTION:

ADAMS (PARS)

RidsSecyMailCenter

OCADistribution

Bill Borchardt

Bruce Mallett

Cynthia Carpenter

Nick Hilton

Marvin Itzkowitz

Catherine Marco

Eric Leeds

Bruce Boger

Mark Satorius

Cynthia Pederson

Steven West

Daniel Holody

Carolyn Evans

William Jones

Steven Orth

Jared Heck

Ross Moore

Mary Ann Ashley

Holly Harrington

Hubert Bell

Guy Caputo

Mona Williams

Allan Barker

James Lynch

Viktoria Mitlyng

Prema Chandrathil

Paul Pelke

Patricia Lougheed

Jeannie Choe

Linda Linn

Monte Phillips

John Giessner

Susan Bagley

RidsNrrPMPrairieIsland

RidsNrrDorlLpl3-1 Resource

RidsNrrDirsIrib Resource

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OEMAIL Resource

OEWEB Resource

NOTICE OF VIOLATION

Northern States Power Company - Minnesota Docket No. 50-306

Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 2 License No. DPR-60

EA-09-167

During a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection conducted from June 15 to

July 9, 2009, a violation of NRC requirements was identified. In accordance with the NRC

Enforcement Policy, the violation is listed below:

Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 50, Appendix B, Criterion III, Design

Control, requires, in part, that measures be established to assure that the design basis

for safety-related functions of structures, systems, and components are correctly

translated into specifications, drawings, procedures, and instructions. Further,

Criterion III requires that the design control measures provide for verifying or checking

the adequacy of designs.

Contrary to the above, as of July 29, 2008, the licensee failed to implement design

control measures to ensure that the design basis for the component cooling water

system was correctly translated into specifications, drawings, procedures, and

instructions. Specifically, the licensee failed to ensure that the safety-related function of

the component cooling water system was maintained following a high energy line break,

seismic, or tornado events in the turbine building.

This violation is associated with a White finding.

The NRC has concluded that information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective

actions taken and planned to be taken to correct the violation and to prevent recurrence, and the

date when full compliance was achieved, is already adequately addressed on the docket in

Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010, dated August 5, 2009. However,

you are required to submit a written statement or explanation pursuant to 10 CFR 2.201 if the

description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your position. In that

case, or if you choose to respond, clearly mark your response as a "Reply to a Notice of

Violation EA-09-167," and send it to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

ATTN: Document Control Desk, Washington, DC 20555-0001 with a copy to the Regional

Administrator, Region III, 2443 Warrenville Road, Suite 210, Lisle IL 60532, and a copy to the

NRC Resident Inspector at the Prairie Island facility, within 30 days of the date of the letter

transmitting this Notice of Violation (Notice).

If you contest this enforcement action, you should also provide a copy of your response, with the

basis for your denial, to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Washington DC 20555-0001.

If you choose to respond, your response will be made available electronically for public

inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRCs Agencywide Documents

Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at

ENCLOSURE

Notice of Violation -2-

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Therefore, to the extent possible, the response

should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be

made available to the public without redaction.

In accordance with 10 CFR 19.11, you may be required to post this Notice within two working

days.

Dated this 3rd day of September 2009

ENCLOSURE